Married Anglican vicars have been able to convert and join the Rome priesthood since the 1950s, but this is the first time that married non-vicars have been allowed to become priests. The decision to allow Anglican converts to keep their tradition of married priests IS A BREAK WITH RULES THAT HAVE APPLIED IN WESTERN CATHOLIC CHURCHES FOR NEARLY 900 YEARS.

The Vatican was at pains to insist that it does not mean a break with the celibacy for clergy nor the first step towards a married priesthood. But leading Anglo-Catholics confirmed that CofE bishops who switch loyalty to Rome will have the power to ordain their own priests and that - with permission from the Pope - some of the newly-ordained priests may be married. Bishop of Fulham the Right Reverend John Broadhurst said the offer from Rome was 'extremely impressive' and added that those who choose to accept 'HAVE A VALID CLAIM ON OUR OWN HERITAGE IN HISTORY.'

Details of the proposals for Anglicans were published by Cardinal William Levada, head of the VATICAN'S CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH, a body which centuries ago ran the inquisition into heretics. They follow the announcement last month of an 'Apostolic Constitution' designed to allow tens of thousands of disaffected Anglicans to return to Rome and yet keep their own priests, parishes and traditions.

The gesture goes alongside a welcome package for Anglicans that will mean that converts will be able to worship according to services from the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer. SERVICES WILL BE RE-WRITTEN TO REMOVE REFERENCES TO THE QUEEN AS HEAD OF THE CHURCH AND TO PLEDGE LOYALTY TO THE POPE.

Bishop Broadhurst, who is the CofE's Suffragan Bishop of London and leader of the Anglo-Catholic pressure group Forward in Faith, said: 'I have been horrified that the Church of England while trying to accommodate us has consistently said we cannot have the jurisdiction and independent life that most of us feel we need. WHAT ROME HAS DONE IS OFFER EXACTLY WHAT THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND HAS REFUSED.'

Then, when the alleged perpetrator's name and religion were made public (NIDAL MALIK HASAN, A LIFELONG MUSLIM) along with eyewitness reports he had shouted the obligatory pre-terror-attack proclamation, "Allahu akbar" ("Allah is greatest") before commencing his orgy of slaughter, their suspicions were confirmed: THIS WAS SURELY A MAJOR ATTACK ON THE AMERICAN HOMELAND BY A MUSLIM TERRORIST.

Further evidence quickly rolled in: Hasan had reportedly refused to fight fellow Muslims, called the war on terror a "war on Islam," TOLD A CO-WORKER MUSLIMS HAD A RIGHT TO RISE UP AND ATTACK AMERICANS, and reportedly had posted online his astoundingly twisted belief that an Islamic suicide bomber was morally equivalent to a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades. In other words, although THE ARMY HAD MANY WARNINGS HASAN WAS A CERTIFIABLE, AMERICA-HATING, JIHADIST "TICKING TIME BOMB" waiting to go off, it did nothing to avert last week's terror attack. Why?

And why, after the truth about Hasan became undeniable following his mass slaughter, does the government, as well as its mouthpiece the establishment press, agonize in their usual pathetic manner over what could possibly have motivated the Army psychiatrist to coldly, methodically murder 13 and wound 38 others? So, why do we have this stubborn inability to come to grips with Islam? Everyone attributes it to "POLITICAL CORRECTNESS," but I think it's time to move beyond that shallow, passé, near-meaningless phrase. Do we dare admit what is really at play here? THE TRUTH IS ACTUALLY VERY SIMPLE. WE ARE AFRAID OF ISLAM. We are intimidated by Islam. And because we are afraid of and intimidated by Islam, Islam is changing us.

It is appallingly obvious, WE'RE AFRAID TO CRITICIZE ISLAM OPENLY, for fear of having our head cut off or having a fatwa put out on us like the director of the new "2012" film, or we're afraid of being sued by some of the very litigious Islamic organizations like CAIR, or we're afraid of being called a racist, extremist, hater or "Islamophobe" thanks to the tyranny of political correctness, or we're afraid of offending those in power and thereby risking our position, stature or other advantage. This reaction, while perhaps selfish and cowardly, is more-or-less conscious and strategic.

Every time a jihadist like Hasan goes on a terrorist killing spree, invariably all who knew him say they were totally stunned, as he was always so "calm, cool and soft-spoken." AND YET THERE WERE WARNING SIGNS, such that were we not blinded by our fears and cowardice, we would not merely have seen them, we would have acted on them – and prevented last week's terrorist attack.

According to the London Telegraph, in an article headlined, "Fort Hood gunman had told US military colleagues that infidels should have their throats cut". Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the gunman who killed 13 at America's Fort Hood military base, once gave a lecture to other doctors in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats. He also told colleagues at America's top military hospital that non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire. Hasan made these incendiary jihadist comments "IN FRONT OF DOZENS OF OTHER DOCTORS AT WALTER REED ARMY MEDICAL CENTRE IN WASHINGTON, DC" during a talk on the Quran, according to the report.

And how did his fellow doctors respond? Although they were horrified, "ONE ARMY DOCTOR WHO KNEW HIM SAID A FEAR OF APPEARING DISCRIMINATORY AGAINST A MUSLIM SOLDIER HAD STOPPED FELLOW OFFICERS FROM FILING FORMAL COMPLAINTS," reported the Telegraph. Are you with me? "A FEAR OF APPEARING DISCRIMINATORY" CAUSED 51 BRAVE AMERICAN SOLDIERS TO BE SHOT BY AN ISLAMIST MONSTER, 13 FATALLY.

This inordinate fear, implanted in us by the lords of politically correct attitude, the subtle brainwashers of modern, secular society, is to blame. It gets worse, much worse. As ABC now reports, "US INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES WERE AWARE MONTHS ago that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al-Qaida."

The evil of "political correctness" – the totalitarian manipulation of thought, foisted on us by twisted elitist sociopaths who hate America and everything our soldiers have fought and died for over the last two centuries, and continue to fight and die for – has to end. Now. It's over. THIS NATION MUST RISE UP AND DEFY THE INSANE THOUGHT CONTROL THAT IS DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY RIGHT BEFORE OUR EYES.

Sony Pictures's latest big screen offering "2012" arrives in theaters on Friday, with a 200-million-dollar production about the end of the world supposedly based on myths backed by the Mayan calendar. The doomsday scenario revolves claims that the end of time will come as an obscure Planet X - or Nibiru - heads toward or collides into Earth. The mysterious planet was supposedly discovered by the Sumerians, according to claims by pseudo-scientists, paranormal activity enthusiasts and Internet theorists.

Some websites accuse NASA of concealing the truth on the wayward planet's existence, but the US space agency denounced such stories as an "Internet hoax." "There is no factual basis for these claims," NASA said in a question-and-answer posting on its website. If such a collision were real "astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye," it added. "OBVIOUSLY, IT DOES NOT EXIST."

"Credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012," NASA insisted. Among the other theories NASA has set out to debunk are that geomagnetic storms, a pole reversal or unsteadiness in the Earth's crustal plates might befall the planet. And while comets and asteroids have always hit the Earth, "big hits are very rare," NASA noted. The last major impact was believed to be 65 million years ago, spurring the end of dinosaurs.

"Looking back, we can see many causes that led to the peaceful revolution, BUT IT STILL REMAINS A MIRACLE," German President Horst Koehler told the leaders of all 27 European Union countries, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Angela Merkel — GERMANY'S FIRST CHANCELLOR TO BE RAISED IN THE FORMER COMMUNIST EAST — called the events of November 9, 1989 an "epic" moment in history. "For me, it was one of the happiest moments of my life," Merkel told a crowd of tens of thousands packed around the Brandenburg Gate. Merkel also recalled the tragic side of November 9 for Germans — the Nazis' Kristallnacht, or Night of Broken Glass — an anti-Semitic pogrom 71 years ago. At least 91 German Jews were killed, hundreds of synagogues destroyed and thousands of Jewish businesses vandalized and looted in the state-sanctioned riots that night.

"Both show that freedom is not self evident," Merkel said. "Freedom must be fought for. Freedom must be defended time and again." Merkel, who was one of thousands to cross that night, recalled that "before the joy of freedom came, many people suffered."

She lauded Gorbachev, with whom she shared an umbrella amid a crush of hundreds, eager for a glimpse of the man many still consider a hero for his role in pushing reform in the Soviet Union. "You made this possible — you courageously let things happen, and that was much more than we could expect," she said.

MOST OF THE LARGEST AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS IN THE PAST TWO DECADES HAVE FOLLOWED THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY POLICY THAT EASTERN JERUSALEM, Judea, Samaria and Gaza are "occupied territories," the dateline usually used in their articles from those areas.

However, US President Barack Obama's switch of gears from the Roadmap Plan has left his policy in quicksand, according to influential newspaper columnists. The liberal Washington Post surprised observers this past summer with a number of editorials and op-ed articles highly critical of President Obama for driving up expectations in the Arab world by demanding Jews stop all building in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.

The newspaper's senior columnist Jackson Diehl wrote three weeks after President Obama's "reaching out to Muslims" speech in Cairo, "How foolish it would be to squander it over a handful of Israeli apartment houses."

Friedman, who once equated Jewish residents in Judea and Samaria with terrorists, wrote Sunday, "The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has become a bad play. This peace process movie is not going to end differently just because we keep playing the same reel. IT IS TIME FOR A RADICALLY NEW APPROACH. And I mean radical. I mean something no US administration has ever dared to do: TAKE DOWN OUR "PEACE-PROCESSING-IS-US" SIGN AND JUST GO HOME."

Mrs Hobson was taken to Scunthorpe General Hospital with an agonising pain in her left eye. Surgeons were forced to remove it and she was later fitted with a prosthetic eye. She said: 'I am devastated and still wake screaming in the night. Both my daughters have had counselling. But if a yob swore in front of my daughter again I'd do the same. To walk away isn't the kind of world we want to live in.'

Last night she urged police to clamp down on people who use obscene language in public, adding: 'It has become acceptable to swear in public. But it's just not on. SUCH HORRIBLE LANGUAGE SMACKS OF A FAILING SOCIETY, WHERE THERE IS NO RESPECT FOR OTHER PEOPLE AND NO CARE FOR CHILDREN.'

She said: 'This has changed my life. I can't work, my prosthetic eye is very painful, and there's a dark area of the sight I do have. My husband has to walk on my left, as I bump into things. I've been run over by a wheelchair twice and burnt myself because I can't see everything.'

Six weeks later two officers came to her home and questioned her about disciplining the youngsters, a boy of 11 and a four-year-old girl. To her horror she then received a letter from the local council saying HER 'CHASTISEMENT' OF THE CHILDREN HAD BEEN 'PUT ON RECORD' FOR AT LEAST THE NEXT 14 YEARS.

The shocked mother, a trainee manager in a Christian bookshop, said last night: 'It was an amazing intrusion. I was doing what parents should do, and what thousands do every week - SETTING MORAL BOUNDARIES FOR HOW CHILDREN SHOULD BEHAVE.' The 34-year-old mother does not want to be named, to protect the identity of her children. But she is speaking out to avoid the same thing happening to another parent.

Mike Judge of the Christian Institute think-tank said: 'This woman is a personal friend - and I know she's a good mum. I don't think it's particularly a Christian issue, but we do believe in the family quite strongly, AND GET WORRIED WHEN THE STATE TRIES TO TAKE OVER THE ROLE OF PARENTS.'

It's not often that a historic announcement comes, as an afterthought, almost by accident, at the end of an otherwise stultifying tedious press conference.

Many journalists had already left the small, stuffy windowless room on the first floor of the International Press Center where news conferences were held. Some had headed home, some drifted to the restaurant where the Stasi security police routinely observed foreign reporters by hidden camera. Even though pressure had been building on the East German government for months to grant "Reisefreiheit" - or freedom to travel - Schabowski had nothing to say about that until NEAR THE END OF HIS PRESENTATION WHEN HE WAS ASKED ABOUT TRAVEL RULES by Riccardo Ehrman of the Italian news agency ANSA at 6:53pm.

"Therefore... um... we have decided today... um... to implement a regulation that allows every citizen of the German Democratic Republic... um... to... um... leave East Germany through any of the border crossings," said Schabowski. He appeared scarcely to believe his own words and we were all dumbfounded. What did he just say? Schabowski was asked when the new rule would take effect. "That comes into effect... according to my information.... immediately, without delay," Schabowski stammered, shuffling through the papers spread in front of him as he sought in vain for more information.

IT LATER EMERGED THE ANNOUNCEMENT WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE RELEASED UNTIL 4AM THE NEXT MORNING. He also meant to say East Germans COULD APPLY FOR VISAS IN AN ORDERLY MANNER at the appropriate state agency. The sudden rush to the border that so overwhelmed the guards there was the last thing he had in mind.

Increases in the value of securities Freddie Mac held over the period helped buoy its net worth, however, erasing its need to tap government funds for a second straight quarter to stay solvent while continuing to buy and guarantee home loans.

Including a $1.3 billion dividend payment on senior preferred stock bought by the Treasury in previous quarters, FREDDIE MAC'S THIRD-QUARTER LOSS INCREASES TO $6.3 BILLION. Its larger rival FANNIE MAE on Thursday said it would need $15 billion from the US Treasury after A WHOPPING $18.9 BILLION THIRD-QUARTER LOSS.

Results at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are widely watched as A BAROMETER OF THE US HOUSING MARKET since they own or back nearly half of outstanding mortgages.

The storm reached hurricane force again late on Saturday and strengthened to a Category 2 storm on Sunday with sustained winds of near 100 mph, the Miami-based hurricane center said in its 4pm EST (2100 GMT) advisory. Some energy companies in the Gulf of Mexico were evacuating workers from offshore platforms, but so far oil and gas output had not been affected.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the only terminal in the United States capable of handling the largest tankers, said it would stop unloading ships due to stormy seas. A quarter of US oil and 15 percent of its natural gas are produced from fields in the Gulf and the coast is home to 40 percent of the nation's refining capacity.

The hurricane center set a hurricane watch from Grand Isle, Louisiana, to Mexico Beach in northwestern Florida, but did not include the city of New Orleans. A hurricane watch means hurricane conditions are expected in the area within 36 hours. LOUISIANA GOVERNOR BOBBY JINDAL DECLARED A STATE OF EMERGENCY ON SUNDAY, allowing the government to mobilize troops and rescue workers.

How is it possible that Israel only has 17 other true friends in the world, out of 192 countries? AN EVIL WIND IS BLOWING AGAINST THE STATE OF ISRAEL AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE. This resolution - WRITTEN BY THE ARAB LEAGUE - calls for a investigation of Israel for "war crimes" during the January 2009 Gaza war in which Israel was defending itself from some 12,000-plus rockets, missiles and mortars that had been fired by Hamas at civilian centers in southern Israel over the course of several years.

YET THE RESOLUTION NEVER EVEN MENTIONS THE WORD "HAMAS." The resolution has no balance, no sense of fair play, and effectively denies that Israel has a right of self-defense, which is, in fact, a basic right affirmed in the UN charter. The resolution affirms the findings of the anti-Israel and ultimately ANTI-SEMITIC GOLDSTONE REPORT and recommends the Secretary General require the Security Council to take up the issue and condemn Israel. After all, the war crimes were committed by Hamas for firing rockets at civilians, for using civilians as shields in Gaza during the war, for using elementary schools, hospitals and mosques as military bases during the war. YET THE UN CARES NOT ONE BIT ABOUT SUCH BITTER TRUTHS.

IF COUNTRIES CANNOT FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISTS IN SELF-DEFENSE, will the US be charged with war crimes for fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan? Will Great Britain? Will Australia? Will Canada? Will other NATO powers?

Speaking to The Sunday Times, he argued: "We're very important. We help companies to grow by helping them to raise capital. Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth. We have a social purpose."

While he says he understands people are angry at banker's actions, he continued: "Everybody should be happy. Companies are looking to grow again and raise money. That's where we come in. The financial system may have led us into the crisis but it will lead us out."

Goldman Sachs is exempt from President Barack Obama's cap on bonuses because it paid back its £6 billion loan from the US government. As a result the average pay this year for the bank's UK staff will be around £440,000. Last month, Goldman Sachs said it had performed so well that its pay and bonus pot for the first nine months was up 46 per cent at £10.2 billion. It was reported that they were considering donating in excess of £627 million to charity in an attempt to quell the furore over the likely size of the pot.

The 61-year-old, who took his seat in the Lords last week, said: "Wherever you turn today - Jewish, Christian or Muslim - the more religious the community, the larger on average are their families. The major assault on religion today comes from the neo-Darwinians."

Lord Sacks said Europe was the most secular region in the world and the only continent seeing populations fall. He continued: "Europe is dying, exactly as Polybius said about ancient Greece in the third pre-Christian century. We are undergoing the moral equivalent of climate change and no-one is talking about it."

Temp hiring has traditionally been seen as a sign that companies are dipping their toes in the water before creating full-fledged positions. This looks like wishful thinking. A more plausible reading is that BUSINESSES REMAIN SKEPTICAL ABOUT THE RECOVERY AND WILL REMAIN RELUCTANT TO COMMIT TO FULL TIME HIRES. Even long into the recovery, businesses may still prefer to meet rising demand by using temporary workers.

The number of workers stuck in part-time jobs has been rising relentlessly. In October, the unemployment gauge that includes involuntary part-time workers rose to 17.5 percent, from 12 percent last year. Even as output starts to expand again, landing a job is getting ever harder. A year ago, almost a third of Americans losing their jobs managed to clamber back into employment in less than five weeks. Now just 20 percent are so lucky.

American households have barely made a dent in their record debts. Wage increases, meanwhile, remain stingy and credit harder to come by. But as the job slump continues there is A MOUNTING DANGER THAT THE PESSIMISM OF BUSINESSES AND CONSUMERS WILL FEED OFF EACH OTHER.

Scientists looking into a failure of the cryogenic cooling plant found a piece of baguette had caused the malfunction. The problem was noticed by enthusiasts who were monitoring data online and noticed unusual temperature changes.

It's not the first setback for the Collider, buried 100m underground near Geneva, Switzerland. The mighty machine was switched on last year in an effort to unlock the secrets of the origin of the universe, but broke down within days due to a leak of helium. The LHC is attempting to recreate conditions at the time of the Big Bang by firing protons round its 16.8 mile tunnel at almost the speed of light to smash them into each other.

There was concern at the time of its launch last year that the device's experiments could inadvertently bring about the end of the world. The series of technical glitches the LHC has suffered has resulted in some members of THE SCIENTIFIC WORLD SPECULATING THE MACHINE IS BEING SABOTAGED - BY ITSELF.

Some physicists have said that TIME-TRAVELLING PARTICLES FROM THE FUTURE COULD BE DAMAGING THE MACHINE in an attempt to thwart any experiments.